


Happy Father's Day...

by hirusen



Series: The Daily Life Of Detective Virgil Sanders [7]
Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Comfort, First Meetings, Flowers, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hugs, Mild Language, Offerings For The Dead, POV First Person, Sad and Sweet, Talking, Team as Family, Tending To A Gravestone, graveyard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:47:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24907852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirusen/pseuds/hirusen
Summary: Virgil visits his father.
Relationships: Male Detective & Rebecca (The Wayhaven Chronicles), Male Detective & Unit Bravo
Series: The Daily Life Of Detective Virgil Sanders [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1020132
Kudos: 5





	Happy Father's Day...

I had just got off the phone with the flower shop when I noticed that Mum had been staring out of the window for a while now. She and I were in my room in the Warehouse, and I know why she was here. This day has always been hard on her, not that I can blame her--even more so after the world I've been introduced to. "Mum?" I softly speak, frowning when she flinched out of her thoughts and turned to me with her eyes shining with tears. "...Oh, Mum..." I didn't really say anything else, my words not making it to my throat, as I wrapped my arms around her.

It was hard to not break down with her when I felt part of my shirt get soaked with tears as she nuzzled her face further into my shoulder and neck. "Same thing?" "Yes... I-I'm sorry, sweety, I just..." "No, I get it." I interrupt, understanding better than I ever have the pain she's in at the mere thought of him.

After all, it is Father's day.

I squeeze a little harder when I feel her shaking a little, but ultimately let her go, Mum muttering something about work before she left my room. There was a knock a moment later and I turned to see Nate with a frown on his lips. "Is everything alright?" I attempt a smile and nod at him. "Yeah. This...just isn't the best day Mum's had so far." Maybe I'm getting rusty about hiding my tells because Nate steps further inside and cups my face in his hands, his eyes searching for something. "Are you sure that's all?" I just nod and carefully remove his hands from my face. "I need to head to the station for a bit, so I won't be back for a while."

Nate sighed, but gave me a small smile as he let me go. We were suppose to be doing a study session so I can better understand about the supernatural world, Adam helping us during the session.

* * *

Hollow's Peak did look lovely this time of year. The flowers families had planted were in full bloom, though it was clear that not many families still visited their passed away members. I quickly found the fountain and filled a small bucket with water, carrying it with me as I head for the grave I came here to visit.

The grave keeper gives me a small wave; the man was just a little bit taller than Nate was, but was incredibly thin to the point that you could see some bones that peaked out from his chest and arms when the large, black flowing robes slipped away from his body. I've never seen the man's full face, but he's always friendly and smiles at the people who comes to visit the dead. He keeps the graves that are no longer visited well maintained, leaving the ones who still get seen to by living family alone.

Setting the bucket down, I gaze upon the headstone after brushing away the dead leaves that the wind didn't steal away.

**Detective Rook Sanders  
Brother, Father, Protector**

The days and years of his birth and death were there as well, but had started to fade away. _Mum might want that restored..._ I'll have to see how much it would cost first though. The stray thoughts left my mind as I knelt down, setting the bouquet of white orchids and calla lilies, orange and yellow chrysanthemums, and dark red roses onto the base of the headstone before I pulled the cloth out of the bucket (all of the buckets by the fountain have a cloth meant to clean the headstones in them), and began my work.

* * *

It only took me an hour this time to clean both the headstone and around Dad's grave. I had went back to my beat up hatchback to grab the blanket and basket I brought with me out of the trunk and went back to my father's grave, throwing the blanket down as carefully as I could to not disturb the nearby lavender than was growing by his grave, before setting both the basket and myself down onto it.

"I'm sorry it's been a while since we last talked. So many things have happened in such a short time, I've been trying to process it." There was a beat of silence, memories both happy and not flooding my mind for a moment, and when I opened my mouth to speak, I heard footsteps crunching behind me.

Fear shot through me as I spun around, a muttered curse escaping me as Unit Bravo was suddenly there. "The fuck, guys? You trying to put me in here sooner?" I nearly bark, gesturing to the surrounding graveyard. "Sorry, Virg, didn't mean to spook ya." Felix spoke up as he quickly joined me on the blanket. "Rook? Who's he?" "My father. It's not his actual name, but people have always called him that, so that's how most people knew his as." I explain, watching as sadness and understand washed over the group.

"Maybe we should leave you be." "What? No. Come sit down." I say, patting the blanket; there was enough room for all of us to sit on it after all. The others looked a little hesitant for a moment, but all did so in the end. "Mason, don't light up here." I scold, quickly snatching the smoke from his lips. He glares at me, but I shake my head. "It's a little disrespectful to the dead, plus the grave keeper doesn't allow smoking on the grounds." "Grave keeper?" Adam asks and I point to where the man is standing, just now going back to the task he was performing, having most likely been staring at Mason when he started to light his smoke.

"Well, I guess introductions are in order. Dad, these guys make up Unit Bravo, the Agency team assigned to Wayhaven and my protection." I give Felix a smile as I turn to him. "This is Felix Hauville." I turn and point to Adam. "Adam du Mortain, he's the team leader." I then turn to Nate. "Nate Sewell, the second in command." And then I jab my thumb towards Mason. "And this smoker here is Mason no last name given." Felix snickers. "All vampires and I'm very happy that I can call them my friends." I feel a hand slide onto my shoulder and I smile to myself as I wrap my fingers around the longer set.

"...Mum told me you used to do my job; a detective and liaison for the Agency? Any idea how many more similarities between us there's gonna be?" "Wait, your father was the liaison for Wayhaven before you?" I hear Adam ask and I nod. "Turns out it was supernaturals that killed my father, not a gang..." Felix wraps an arm around my shoulders and presses me against his side. Both he and Nate know that, while I can handle death and talking about it, I still get emotional about it. "These guys were a PAIN when we first met. ...Well, Adam was."

"Detective, that was because--" "Your real mission was to keep me from finding out about Murphy and supernaturals, while also protect me from the man, and not ACTUALLY helping me track him down, I know; but Dad doesn't." I gesture to the grave we sit before as I say that, Adam frowning a little but that's it. "Well of course Adam was a pain; have you met the man?" Felix teased, but all he got was my chuckle and Adam smacking him in the back of the head. "Adam and Nate are sorta Felix's adoptive parents; Felix is from the Echo World while the rest of the team were human before being turned."

"This cathartic for you, Virgil?" Mason asks and I think about it for a moment. "...I guess it is. I used to come here a lot when I was younger, and especially when I was committing crimes before the cops caught me; there was always a lot of shit going on in my life, and not all of it good. Plus, I usually would come here at night when I was younger, and people always thought I was crazy for doing so." Both Adam and Nate paled a little at that. "Hey, I had no clue that supernaturals were real... Well, actually, maybe that was when my belief that you guys were real started."

"What do you mean?" Nate asks and I lay back, my head ending up in Adam's lap, one of my hands finding Nate's and carefully playing with his fingers. "I never told Mum this, but back when I was like eight, I snuck out of the house and came here--it was like 11 at night--and while I was just sitting here, a little girl around my age came up to me, asked me to talk with her." "A young girl was here as well?" Adam asked, clearly confused on why so many children were running around a graveyard at night. "Yeah. So I said that I would, but she asked me to follow her before we talked." "Where did she take you?" Nate asked and I tilted my head to get a look at the other tombstones, pointing to one on the far end of the yard. "There."

"Was...she a ghost?" Felix asked and I shrugged. "I guess she was. There's no longer a name on the headstone, but she said that was where she was now and that her name was Megan." I felt a small smile spread my lips. "She was so sweet; we just talked about silly things and how nice the quiet of the graveyard was. About an hour of us talking a man came up to us with a surprised but happy look on his face." "Was he also a ghost?" Mason teased, but I shook my head. "No, I think he was a demon; his eyes were just like mine until he got close and then they just turned solid black."

Mason and Felix both barked out a laugh before Mason asked, "And you didn't freak out?" "No. Sure, I knew he was a stranger, but he wasn't being hostile towards me and he seemed really happy that Megan, who was his sister, had a friend to talk to for the night." Nate frowned for a moment, thinking about something. "Was Megan a demon too, I wonder..." I gently squeezed his hand to get his attention. "No. Jake, the demon who came to visit his sister, said that she was like me." Nate hummed at that. "And that was the night you started to believe we were real." Felix stated and I grinned at him.

"Yep." "That would explain why you were so accepting of the idea that we were vampires; you've already encountered supernaturals when you were so young." "You were lucky too." Adam spoke up. "Had this Jake attacked you, it would've been much harder for us to have captured Murphy." "You mean if he killed me? Oh please, Adam, I was a child not stupid. I knew how to defend myself from adults." Adam chuckled at that, seeming to be amused by my past confidence. A gentle breeze filtered through the trees, the sun just now heading towards the horizon, but there was plenty of time before it got dark.

Mason's face was suddenly above mine, a smirk curling his lips. "So, will you be telling your father about all of the interesting bits if you get with one of us?" "Why? You want me to?" I retorted and Mason let a genuine smile spread his lips, falling back onto the blanket with a soft laugh. "...Oh, yeah." I sit up then, though I'll admit Adam's lap is very comfortable to lay in, and look at the headstone. "Mum said that she's sorry, and that she loves you dearly." A quiet swept over us then. "...I still don't know much about how you died, and maybe I'll find out for both Mum and I, but...if what Mum has been saying is true, and I'm more like you than she realized at first, then I can bet you went down fighting." Two different sets of hands settled onto my shoulders.

"It's... It's been hard, on Mum, on me, without you here and I do miss you a lot; the few memories of you I do have that aren't photos or stories Mum have told me...I treasure a lot." I reach out and place my hand against my father's tombstone, the stone almost warm against my hand despite how hidden away from the sun his grave actually is. "I know you know I can handle myself, and I've got Unit Bravo to help me out if I need it, but...promise me you'll look after Mum." I felt the tears stinging my eyes, but I fight hard against them; I can't let myself break down just yet. "I know she'll do everything and anything to protect me, and I'll do the same, but...if, if you're watching out for her too...I'm sure the extra protection will help her in the long run." The hands on my shoulders both gently squeeze them and I allow myself to be pulled back to be settled between Adam and Nate, Felix flopping into my lap while I feel Mason trail a hand up and down my back.

They don't need to say anything; we all know that their actions right now are louder than their words could ever be.

"...Well, we should be heading back, but next time I'll tell you about Sanja and Falk; they're really good people and I think you'll like hearing about them." I say as I reach for the basket that has been with us on the blanket, pulling out small, plain cookie and setting in at the base of his grave. "A cookie?" "Yeah, it might take me a bit to give them all out." "To whom else?" Adam asked and I just gestured to the whole graveyard. "I do it every time I visit my father and I'd just feel wrong if I didn't do it before I left." "Surely you didn't do so as a child, right?" Nate asks and I shook my head. "No, it was only my father and Megan at the time, since I could only sneak out two cookies from the house, but now that I have my own place, I just...make them all cookies."

"Offerings for the dead, huh? Didn't think you were the type." "But we are glad he is." A new voice spoke and we all turned to see the grave keeper standing next to us; I give him a smile as I take the basket in my hand and stand up. "I assume you did your other habit as well?" I chuckle to the man and pull out another cookie. "You mean making you one as well? Of course." I offer it to the grave keeper and he takes it with his bony fingers, a smile on his lips. "Thank you, special one." "Of course." And then the man walked away.

"'Special one'?" Felix asks and I shrug. "He's been here for as long as anyone can remember and he's called me that ever since I started to come here on my own." After saying that out loud, I really start to wonder if the guy is actually a supernatural. Without another word, I set to work placing a cookie on each of the graves. Of course, that's when Adam stops me and takes a small cluster of them out of the basket, heading towards the other side of the graveyard and setting them down where I've been putting them; soon, Nate, Felix, and Mason are all helping me with the task and we finish it as the sun is halfway to the horizon.

"And this is every visit?" Mason asks, all of us off of the grounds and the man is currently lighting up the smoke I had taken from him earlier. "I bake like a grandmother, so yes, every visit." "It might be nice to join you again, Virg." Nate comments, the blanket I had brought folded up and is tucked under his arm. "Speak for yourself." "Oh, just a cheerful spirit, Mason." Felix teases and both Nate and I laugh. "...Adam?" I turn to the man, having noticed that he wasn't walking with us and then I see what had him still.

It was Megan, smiling and waving at us. I return both and she fades away. "...Why did she..?" "She's shy around adults, but once she saw that you were all my friends, she let herself be known." Adam cocked a brow at my choice of words. "Is your memory that bad, Mr. 900 years old? I met her when I was her age when she died; she IS a childhood friend of mine."


End file.
